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Tuesday December 12

Feral Interactive has released Deus Ex: Mankind Divided for the Mac. It’s available for $59.59 at the Feral website and Stream.

The Desperate Measures in-game mission and the Covert Agent pack, which includes various weapons and items, are available for free. In Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, you’re in the damaged world of Adam Jensen, where the decisions you make and the actions you take will play a crucial role in humanity’s future.

The game is compatible with: all 15-inch MacBook Pros released since late 2016; all 21.5-inch Retina 4K iMacs released since 2017; all 27-inch Retina 5K iMacs released since late 2014; and all Mac Pros released since late 2013. The 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro released in mid 2015 with an AMD Radeon R9 M370X can run the game but doesn’t consistently meet the standards required for official support.

The news was announced Monday by Verizon as it sealed a deal with the NFL for an estimated $2 billion over the next five years. The move highlights the telecom giant’s pivot toward digital media and online advertising amid massive changes in the TV and Internet industries.

Monday’s deal makes it possible for Verizon to hook customers of even rival Internet providers with must-see content hosted on websites that Verizon owns — such as AOL, Yahoo, Yahoo Sports and go90, the telecom giant’s proprietary online video app.

The agreement between Verizon and the NFL will let football fans stream their local teams’ games, as well as nationally televised games and league highlights. Games that air on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays are covered under the deal. Even the Super Bowl will be widely streamed to anyone with an Internet connection, Verizon said.

Even if you have no interest in the NFL, this is an important move. Verizon has...

From the T3 interview with Phil Schiller, starting with the creation of iPhone X:

“At the time, at the beginning, it seemed almost impossible. Not just almost. It seemed impossible. And to pull off what feels impossible and make it possible – and not only that, but just something we love using – is just a great achievement.

“Clearly there was a point in the process where we had to commit to the fact that it would be a full top-to-bottom screen on the front with no home button, which means you’re counting on Face ID working as we’d hope, and being as good.

“That’s an exciting moment, when you have to sort of… the old saying: ‘Burn the boats. Leave the past behind, and commit.’ Knowing that the team was willing to make that gamble was a key point early enough in the process..

And:

“Most people are comfortable with it within minutes – 30 minutes, whatever. It’s not the kind of thing you have to live with for a week or two to get used to.

Shazam’s main strength is music identification, and that fits well into Apple’s current strategy. It’s not just Siri on our phones: AirPods, HomePod, and Apple Watch could benefit from Shazam’s uncanny ability to name that tune.

And:

On the new Pixel phones, Google has implemented a feature that displays the name of a song playing nearby even if Assistant hasn’t been asked. It’s a neat feature that’s all done locally, and I use far more often than I thought I would. A similar feature would be great on the iPhone, and with Shazam’s massive library at Apple’s disposal it would be far superior to Google’s.

And:

We will already be able to ask Siri to play things like the most popular song in 1986, but Shazam could amplify its knowledge considerably. It would be great to tap your AirPods and ask “Play the song that goes like this …” or “Play that Ed Sheeran song about Ireland.” Shazam might not be able to do that now, but the...

Enlarge / iOS 11, which will ship with the iPhone 8, has a renovated app store.

Apps are just as highly anticipated as other forms of entertainment now, and Apple's newest update to its app stores lets customers call dibs on their favorites before they're even released. An update to the iTunes Connect resources page states that developers can now open up their apps for preorder on all Apple platforms before the program is officially released. This allows developers to see the product page before anyone can download the app, and customers can tap a new "Pre-Order" button to secure their download before it becomes available on the designated release date.

Apple’s iMac Pro will be available to order on December 14 with pricing starting at $4,999. Announced in June, with its 27-inch Retina 5K display, next generation Intel Xeon processors up to 18 cores, up to 22 Teraflops of graphics computation, up to 16GB of VRAM, up to 128GB of memory, built-in Ethernet, and support for one billion colors, it’s most powerful Mac ever made.

It comes in a new space gray enclosure. The iMac Pro with the Vega GPU delivers up to 11 Teraflops of single-precision compute power for real-time 3D rendering and immersive, high frame rate VR. For half-precision computation, ideal for machine learning, the pro all-in-one delivers up to 22 Teraflops of performance.

The iMac Pro also supports up to 4TB of SSD and up to 128GB of ECC memory, and with four Thunderbolt 3 ports can connect to up to two high-performance RAID arrays and two 5K displays at the same time.

Apple’s pro-oriented all-in-one desktop, the iMac Pro, is set to launch this Thursday on December 14, 2017. To learn what to expect from the iMac Pro you can read our full breakdown of everything we know about iMac Pro so far. more…

Apple on Tuesday announced plans to get its Swift programming language taught to students across Chicago through an expansion of its Everyone Can Code program, done in partnership with local institutions.

A new Mac app from the former CEO of Groupon claims to make to make audio file editing as easy as wordprocessing. Descript allows you to edit a transcript of the recording, and the changes are then automatically reflected in the synced audio file …

An anonymous reader shares a report: A Reddit post over the weekend has drawn a flurry of interest after an iPhone 6s owner reported that a battery replacement significantly increased the device's performance running iOS 11. The ensuing discussion thread, also picked up by readers in the MacRumors forum, has led to speculation that Apple intentionally slows down older phones to retain a full day's charge if the battery has degraded over time. According to TeckFire, the author of the original Reddit post, their iPhone had been very slow after updating to iOS 11, especially compared to their brother's iPhone 6 Plus, so they decided to do some research with GeekBench and battery life apps, and ended up replacing the battery.

Today is your last chance to get the The Black Friday Mac Bundle. With a almost $500 worth of software, this Black Friday steal is a Mac user’s dream, headlined by renowned apps such as PDF Expert and Roxio’s Toast Titanium — two apps that are $60 and $100 by themselves. For less than the price of either of these apps, you get both of them along with six more great apps, including Default Folder X 5, WALTR 2 for Mac, Flux 7, Stylizer…

Once again, Digital Music News, quoting the always popular "unnamed sources," claims Apple will quit selling music at the iTunes Store by 2019 and push users to go with streaming only via, of course, Apple Music. According to the Sellers Research Group (that's me), this is totally not true.

The reasoning is that streaming music is on the rise (Apple Music reportedly has 30 million subscribers with that number growing), while song downloads are on the decline (an estimated -25% or -30% last year). Also, according to Digital Music, folks are confused and don’t understand the difference between Apple Music, iTunes, iTunes Match, iTunes Cloud, etc.

Chart courtesy of Digital Music

However, iTunes music downloads will still be worth an estimated $600 million in...

You may know that you can use your Apple Watch to locate your iPhone, but did you know that you can make your phone flash its LED, too? In today’s Quick Tip, we’ve got the details on just how you can do so!

Adobe’s December release of Lightroom CC for iPad and iPhone includes a few new interesting features that will be helpful to amateur and professional photographers alike. The update comes after Adobe significantly overhauled the Lightroom experience earlier this fall, bringing closer integration between the Creative Cloud desktop application and mobile experience.

Apple filed a petition at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board on Friday challenging the validity of an electrical circuitry patent held by a company with ties to a trio of Native American tribes, setting up the possibility for a defense based on the tribes' sovereign rights, reports Law360.

In September MEC Resources, which is wholly owned by a Native American tribe, sued Apple, saying the iPad violated its patent (number 6,137,390) for “inductors with minimized EMI effect and the method of manufacturing the same.” MEC Resources is owned by the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation, also known as the Three Affiliated Tribe. The...

Apple’s App Store has a new feature that allows developers to make new iOS 11 apps available for pre-order up to 90 days before release.

Developers can now track the performance of app pre-orders in Sales and Trends. Sales and Trends displays the number of ordered, canceled, and net pre-orders (net represents ordered minus canceled). Once a pre-order is released for download to the customer, it's reflected as a unit. For paid apps, upon successful billing, downloads are released and the associated sales from the pre-order appear.

Before an app is released, users can view the app's product page and order the app in advance. Once it’s released, users will be notified and the app will automatically download to their iPhone or iPad. You'll be charged before downloading for paid apps.

Apple announced that it’s working with the city of Chicago to bring coding opportunities to Chicago’s nearly 500,000 students through a citywide expansion of Apple’s Everyone Can Code program.

Chicago-area teachers use Apple’s Everyone Can Code tools and curriculum to bring coding to life for students.

The initiative in Chicago was designed in collaboration with the Mayor’s Office of Chicago, Chicago Public Schools, City Colleges of Chicago, local businesses and non-profit organizations. Together, Apple and local organizations are helping expand opportunities for students to build the skills they need to pursue careers in the app economy by becoming proficient in Swift, Apple’s programming language. Described as safe, fast, and expressive, Swift appeals to developers who are aiming to build on Apple’s multiple platforms, such as iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS.

Starting this spring, Chicago Public Schools and City Colleges of Chicago will expand Everyone Can Code...

We all know that it is preferable to reduce, reuse, and recycle when it comes to keeping trash out of landfills. However, you may not have known that it is much more preferable to repurpose or reuse your old materials as opposed to even recycling. This is especially true when it comes to electronics, like cell phones or old computers. In this article, we will compare reuse versus recycling. We will also look at how to reuse or repurpose your old computer.

Recycle versus reuse

Before you just decide to recycle your Mac, wait. To properly recycle your Mac, you will probably have to take it to a special recycling center. You may even be charged. Macs and other electronics are not like plastics or glass: they can’t just be easily recycled. Due to lots of mixed materials and parts, they have to be disposed of properly. Recycling also takes energy and time to process all the materials. Instead, consider reuse of your...

Siri is multi-lingual. in iOS it can translate phrases or ask the meaning of a foreign word. Here’s how:

Ask in English how to say something in Mandarin, Spanish, French, German, or Italian. Siri will translate the phrase. You can also use Type to Siri for translation.

To activate Type to Siri, go to Settings>General>Accessibility>Siri. Toggle Type to Siri, and you’re ready to go. Now, when you long-press the Home button to invoke the personal digital assistant, the standard virtual keyboard pops up with a “What can I help you with?” message displayed above it.

On a regular basis, Apple World Today posts a list of notable new apps or app updates that have been released. They may not necessarily be new, but they're popular and deserve mention. Here are today's picks.

iOS Apps/Updates

Titan Deep Space Company has launched Math Classroom Challenge. The $0.99 game is designed especially for children aged five to 12,.MCC is an educational and interactive game that generates random math exercises in a 3D environment. This version has no enemies, and no weapons. Instead, the player throws water with a water hose to the numbers, solving the static and dynamic random panels, from sums to equations.

On a regular basis, Apple World Today posts a list of notable new apps or app updates that have been released. They may not necessarily be new, but they're popular and deserve mention. Here are today's picks.

Apple’s GymKit platform seems to have made its first debut in the United States. After initially surfacing in Australia and London, GymKit was seen as Life Time Athletic at Sky, a “luxury health club” in Manhattan. GymKit is also expected to be incorporated at the Equinox line of clubs beginning in 2018. Life Time Athletic says it plans to expand to over 130 locations soon and is currently using equipment from TechnoGym.

The GymKit platform pairs an Apple Watch with workout equipment such as treadmills, ellipticals, and stationary bikes. Once paired, the user has access to more accurate information such as speed and incline.

The setup process is described as follows:

GymKit works with a simple tap-to-pair process: Tapping a ready piece of equipment starts the process, and the Apple Watch brings up a confirmation screen.

With treadmills, it asks if you want to record a walk or a run. From there, everything on...

It’s now a bit more likely that the iPhone X you ordered will ship in as few as one to three days in some locations.

Apple’s website has U.S. orders for all iPhone X models attached to AT&T, Sprint and Verizon networks, as well as SIM-free versions, deliver in 3 to 5 days, a marked improvement over recent ship-by estimates. Shipments of T-Mobile iPhone X units are pegged at nine days.

The lead times have improved in international markets such as Canada and China, these countries both showing estimated delivery dates of one to three business days. In the European market, ship times in Germany and the UK pegged at 3 to 5 days, and France at nine days.

In-sore pickup availability has also improved, as Apple outlets in major cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Seattle show the iPhone X as available to purchase on Monday.

The stock updates have dovetailed with a research note from KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who sated that there...

This Tuesday, one Engadget editor attempted to become an Instagram star. (Spoiler: without money, it's harder than you'd think.) We have the best gift ideas for the console gamer in your life. We also take issue...

SpaceX is making an historic first on Wednesday, when it gets one step closer towards realizing its vision of reusable space launch gear. The private space company is launching a space station resupply mission using a refurbished Dragon spacecraft an...

Bitcoin is sitting at $16,674 at the time of writing, after rocketing from $1,000 to more than $19,000 in the course of this year. Those types of eye-catching numbers (and the resulting media hype) are bound to draw the interest of casual folk. But,...

Monday December 11

Microsoft's Cortana refuses to sit idly by as Amazon's Alexa hogs all the skills. Even though the two digital helpers are best buds (by way of their upcoming partnership), Cortana is feeling competitive. The AI can now connect to your Gmail account v...

Documentation seen by Ita&uacute Unibanco customers on Monday suggest Apple is on the verge of launching Apple Pay in Brazil, which was first rumored to gain access to the mobile payments service nearly two years ago.

This week most series are wrapping up with fall finales, but the biggest TV show making its exit is Mr. Robot. While we wait for the new Star Wars flick this weekend, movie fans can check out Dunkirk via video on-demand services or Moonlight on 4K Bl...

Apple relied on an iOS app created by a Chinese activist to identify and resolve at least 196 cases in which suppliers violated the nation's environmental rules, actions that in some cases led to their removal from the company's supply chain.

The team behind the popular subscription-based Newton Mail client has recently announced a new Calendar companion app. The developers say the app is designed to be lightweight and act as a complement to Newton Email, though it is a separate app…

For two days only (or while supplies last), Adorama is offering shoppers the lowest prices anywhere on a variety of Macs. Pick up a 2015 13" Air for just $779 or a 27" iMac 5K for $1,299, the lowest price we've seen to date. Current 15" MacBook Pros are also up to $300 off, while a premium 13" Touch Bar is $200 off. All with free shipping, no tax outside NY and NJ, and 0% financing incentives.

Yes, Atari's speaker-equipped hats are very much real. At the last possible minute, the game brand has started selling the Speakerhat to the masses. Pay $130 or more ($100 until January 2nd) and you too can get a cap with Bluetooth stereo speakers...

Today, we’re launching the first installment of a series of photography appsperiments: usable and useful mobile photography experiences built on experimental technology. Our “appsperimental” approach was inspired in part by Motion Stills, an app developed by researchers at Google that converts short videos into cinemagraphs and time lapses using experimental stabilization and rendering technologies. Our appsperiments replicate this approach by building on other technologies in development at Google. They rely on object recognition, person segmentation, stylization algorithms, efficient image encoding and decoding technologies, and perhaps most importantly, fun!

I know many photographers love to try new things, so you may want to check these out.

New apps on all Apple platforms can be made available for pre-order when you submit your app and metadata for review in iTunes Connect. When you opt in, you’ll choose a download release date that’s two to 90 days in the future. Once your app is released for download, customers are notified and it will automatically download to their device within 24 hours.

“This is NOT US,” MyEtherWallet said on Sunday from its official Twitter account.

The statement was a response to a tweet by someone identified as @ChrisLundkvist, who posted an image of the $4.99 app, dubbed MyEtherWallet, showing it was the third-most popular finance app in Apple’s App Store.

Good for Apple for removing the app so quickly. Clearly the developer tried to sell an app based on the reputation of another company. It’s awful when people do that.

Apple on Monday announced a new App Store feature that allows developers to offer discounted introductory pricing or limited-time free trials on auto-renewable app subscriptions, a move designed to help subscription-based apps draw in new customers.

Google this week released a proof of concept tool that allows security researchers, and other developers, to hack into iOS 11.1.2, software that could lead to a jailbreak for devices running that OS version.

This time of year more than others, it seems, people need to remote control their friend’s and family’s computers for assistance. It’s what we do here at Mac Geek Gab – helping people, that is – and we’re happy to help you help others, too! But that’s not all we talk about in this episode of MGG 687. In fact, it’s probably only a smidge of it. Managing multiple Photos libraries, migrating from FireWire to the future, and Cool Stuff Found. Listen, learn, and enjoy!

Apple has announced today that all developers can now offer their applications for pre-order via the App Store. Apple made the announcement on its iTunes Connect blog, alongside a few other tidbits of news…

Dr. Kiki Sanford is a neurophysiologist with a Ph.D from U.C. Davis. She’s a popular science communicator and creator of This Week in Science (TWIS) podcast and radio show. This is her third appearance on Background Mode. In this episode, Kiki and I once again get geeky with science: an in-depth discussion of 1) Whether it’s a bad idea for our AI agents to have human names, 2) How attitudes about some science affects all science budgeting, 3) The wholistic system effects of climate change, 4) A fascinating discussion about the human microbiome and how the digestion of key nutrients affects whole body health and 5) How astronomers use Pulsars to detect gravitational waves. Kiki has a special way of inspiring one to learn about … everything, so don’t miss this very special guest.

Google on Monday released a pair of "appsperiments" that provide new ways of capturing photographic images with smartphones like iPhone, while at the same time helping the search giant refine experimental software tools related to computer vision and artificial intelligence.

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

In ExtraBITS this week, Apple is buying the Shazam audio-identification app, the Ai.Type keyboard for iOS and Android has leaked the data of over 31 million users, Apple’s ban on app templates is hurting small businesses, Apple has patched a HomeKit vulnerability, and the iPhone X’s reliance on new gestures has proved to be a complex topic.

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Inspired by the success of Motion Stills, Google is releasing more photography apps built on experimental technology. Today, Google is launching two new “appsperimentals” for iOS that take advantage of recent phone and computer vision advancements.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Apple agreed to acquire music-identification service Shazam, taking ownership of one of the first apps to demonstrate the power of the iPhone, recognizing songs after hearing just a few bars of a tune. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but a person familiar with the situation said Apple is paying about $400 million for the U.K.-based startup. That would be one of Apple's largest acquisitions ever, approaching the size of its 1996 purchase of Next Computer Inc. which brought co-founder Steve Jobs back to the company. That transaction would be worth more than $600 million in today's dollars. The Shazam app uses the microphone on a smartphone or computer to identify almost any song playing nearby, then points users to places they can listen to it in future, such as Apple Music or Google's YouTube.

"Apple Music and Shazam are a natural fit, sharing a passion for music discovery and delivering great music experiences to our...

A light news day today after the big stories about Shazam, macOS 11.3.3 beta, and so on.

Three US airlines are banning "smart luggage", luggage with lithium-ion battery packs built-in

A fake cryptocurrency app was removed from the App Store after the operators of a legitimate Ethereum wallet service complained to Apple about the fake

Beginning in April of 2018, US and Canadian citizens will no longer need to sign for purchases made with American Express, MasterCard or Discover debit and credit cards...or Apple Pay payments made with those cards

The text version of the podcast can be read below. To listen to the podcast here, click the play button on the player below. Apple News readers need to visit Apple World Today in order to listen to the podcast.

Earlier this month, we visited the New York Audio Show. We hoped we'd find some audio gear to write about on iLounge, but didn't find much that would be relevant to normal people — though the stereo systems on display at the NYAS were amazing, many of them cost more than some people's homes. There are worse ways to spend a Saturday, for sure, but we found something interesting in the most unexpected place: on our way out the door, we noticed a small booth showing what appeared to be Bluetooth headphones by a company called Hooke. We stopped by to chat with the founder about his product, and we're happy we did. The Hooke Verse ended up being one of the most unique headphones we've ever used — it's not just a headphone, it's a head-mounted microphone array.{/exp:char_limit}...

Last week, news of a Google-found iOS exploit caught the attention of the developer community and opened up the potential for the first iOS 11 jailbreak. Now, the kernel vulnerability has been publicly shared.

Belkin’s new USB-C Car Charger takes the traditional car charger up a notch by adding USB-PD Fast Charging capabilities for iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X users. The minimalist car charger features a USB-C port that you can connect a standard Apple USB-C to Lightning cable to to juice up your iPhone at the fastest speeds possible. it’s a great solution if you’re a busy iPhone user who is always hopping in and out of you car…

While most of the focus on Apple's purchase of Shazam notes the music and audio recognition engine, the company also has a machine learning vision system and an augmented reality product currently in use in the advertising industry to deliver product visualizations, and 360-degree videos.

Lowe's has a nice deal today on an Anker Power Bank charger. For $17, you can get a 10,400 mAH Anker portable charger from the big-box store. This is about $11 cheaper than the price you can find on Amazon, and $10 off Lowe's usual price.

This charger comes with two USB ports, and supports high-speed charging via Anker's PowerIQ and VoltageBoost technologies. Anker claims this Power Bank can charge the iPhone 6 up to four times, the Samsung Galaxy S6 up to three times, or the iPad Air once. Each port pumps out a maximum of 2.4 amps each. The Power Bank only comes in black, and it has indicator lights on the side to show how much power the device has left.

Apple has confirmed that it is purchasing the popular Shazam app, which identifies songs, TV shows, movies, and ads by their audio signatures. Apple reportedly paid about $400 million for the company and said that it has “exciting plans in store” for Shazam. You can already ask Siri “What’s playing?” to identify audio with Shazam, so it’s unclear what additional integration Apple has in mind.

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Apple has confirmed that it is purchasing the popular Shazam app, which identifies songs, TV shows, movies, and ads by their audio signatures. Apple reportedly paid about $400 million for the company and said that it has “exciting plans in store” for Shazam. You can already ask Siri “What’s playing?” to identify audio with Shazam, so it’s unclear what additional integration Apple has in mind.

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

An impostor app pretending to belong to MyEtherWallet.com has been removed from the App Store, but not before it managed to secure an ad and climb to third place in the store's Finance category over the weekend.

If you’re looking for an easier way to create standard print pieces, check out this week’s DealBITS drawing for a chance to win a copy of BeLight Software’s Swift Publisher 5.

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Creator Mike von Rotz made an Apple Watch stand inspired by Thing from The Addams Family. As fans know, Thing is a disembodied hand that crawls around and performs various services for the family. It started when Mike found a free hand model from TurboSquid. He then configured it using Autodesk Maya to move it into the correct position. Printing it took about 19 hours, and the final model stands 6.6 inches (17 cm). You can find a free file on Thingiverse. It’s just a simple, plain white hand, but if you’re good at painting you can customize it to your liking.

A tweet by KTLA’s Rich DeMuro notes that Apple is donating $1 million to help with fire aid in southern California. The tech giant had this to say:

Our thoughts are with all those affected by the fires in Southern California, including our colleagues, friends, and their families. Apple is donating $1 million to aid in the rebuilding and recovery efforts of the communities that have been impacted.

A hillside glows with embers as the Thomas fire burns through Los Padres National Forest near Ojai, Calif. (AP)

The fires have destroyed about 800 homes and other buildings, killed dozens of horses and forced more than 200,000 people to flee since Dec. 4. Late last week, the fire swept through the San Luis Rey Training Facility, where it killed more than 40...

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, writing for Motherboard: Google has released a powerful tool that can help security researchers hack and find bugs in iOS 11.1.2, a very recent version of the iPhone operating system. The exploit is the work of Ian Beer, one of the most prolific iOS bug hunters, and a member of Google Project Zero, which works to find bugs in all types of software, including that not made by Google. Beer released the tool Monday, which he says should work for "all devices." The proof of concept works only for those devices he tested -- iPhone 7, 6s and iPod touch 6G -- "but adding more support should be easy," he wrote. Last week, Beer caused a stir among the community of hackers who hack on the iPhone -- also traditionally known as jailbreakers -- by announcing that he was about to publish an exploit for iOS 11.1.2. Researchers reacted with excitement as they realized the tool would make jailbreaking and security research much easier.

After rumors started swirling around a few days ago, Apple has confirmed to BuzzFeed News that it is indeed buying the music-recognition app Shazam. The acquisition price was not revealed, but is reportedly around $400 million. That’s a far cry from the Shazam valuation of $1 billion the company was claiming in its last round of fundraising (in 2015), but the world of streaming music services has evolved since then.

Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr made the following statement to BuzzFeed News:

Apple has confirmed to BuzzFeed News that last week’s rumor was true: it’s acquiring Shazam, the popular music recognition app that’s used by more than 100 million people each month to identify music, get song lyrics, and more.

Apple spokesperson Tom Neumayr has this to say in a statement to BuzzFeed News: “We are thrilled that Shazam and its talented team will be joining Apple. Since the launch of the App Store, Shazam has consistently ranked as one of the most popular apps for iOS. Today, it’s used by hundreds of millions of people around the world, across multiple platforms. Apple Music and Shazam are a natural fit, sharing a passion for music discovery and delivering great music experiences to our users. We have exciting plans in store, and we look forward to combining with Shazam upon approval of today’s...

Apple is close to acquiring Shazam, the app that lets users identify songs, movies, TV shows and commercials by using a small portion of the audio or images, TechCrunch reports. Sources said the deal could be announced as early as today, with one claiming Apple could pay more than $400 million for the company. The app has been downloaded more than a billion times, but hasn’t been turning much of a profit. The app already integrates with Siri…

The iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus all have a feature that brings an extra level of convenience to charging -- they're Qi-compatible, which means that they can use any Qi charger for wireless charging. Just lay your iPhone onto the charger and it is quickly charged up, all without needing a cable. We have some great deals on wireless iPhone charging docks from JS Innovations, starting with the popular Tilt Dock for $52.50.

The Tilt Dock has a rotating design so that you can charge your iPhone in a flat position or have it propped up for easy use while it's charging. All of the JS wireless charging docks use a 3-coil design to quickly charge your iPhone without needing to have perfect alignment on the dock.

After going to the US Securities and Exchange Commission to ask for permission to exclude a shareholder proposal mandating more diversity hires, Apple is asking the SEC for a similar pass to dodge votes on proposals about climate issue and human rights concerns, Reuters reports. In a letter to the SEC, Apple argued that at least four of the proposals it has fielded from shareholders relate to “ordinary business” and can be left off the…

Apple on Monday confirmed that it has purchased popular service Shazam, an app that listens for and identifies songs. It was rumored that the deal was for about $400 million, but no official sale price was given.

It appears that some iPhone 6 or iPhone 6s family devices may see slower processing speeds as a result of a battery that has reached the end of its operational life, with some users getting a speed-up upon replacement -- but the slow-down and consequent speed-up isn't universal, and there may be other factors at work.

After handing off some of his day-to-day management responsibilities while Apple constructed its new campus, Jony Ive is back in direct charge of the product design teams, Bloomberg reports. Ive was named Chief Design Officer in 2015 after spending years as Senior Vice President of Design, handing off many of his management tasks to Vice President of Industrial Design Richard Howarth and Vice President of User Interface Design Alan Dye. But now, “with…

Ruslan Salakhutdinov, Apple’s director of artificial intelligence research, shared some new details about the company’s AI developments that all seemed to revolve around self-driving cars, Wired reports. During a lunch talk at tech conference, Salakhutdinov discussed how the company is creating detailed 3D maps, teaching vehicles to navigate in unfamiliar areas and using camera and sensor data to spot cars, pedestrians and other obstacles…

It’s Green Monday, and today you can pick up a Lifetime Subscription to VPN Unlimited for an extra 40% off using the coupon code GREEN40, making the final price only $18. Providing users with access to a secure virtual private network (VPN) for securing traffic when surfing from public Wi-Fi access points, VPN Unlimited lets you connect to any website anywhere that you have Internet access, bypassing restricted web content and protecting your…

Apple’s efforts to purge clone and spam apps from the App Store by banning those created by a “commercialized template or app generation service” has ended up driving small businesses off the platform as well, TechCrunch reports. While lots of template-generated apps are generic and don’t provide much in the way of functionality for users, many others are created by services that cater to businesses, churches, and other organizations…

AppleInsider has learned that enterprise sales staff within Apple have begun asking long-time clients about what "custom configurations" of the iMac Pro that they may seek, and are making preparations to take orders for the device as soon as this week.

The third-party keyboard company Ai.Type has inadvertently leaked data from over 31 million iOS and Android users, including names, phone numbers, and information associated with social media profiles. Unfortunately, because many third-party keyboards need full access to your data, it’s not particularly surprising that one of them would have been hacked or, as in this case, accidentally revealed user information. If you use Ai.Type, you might want to delete it now, and if you rely instead on other third-party keyboards to which you’ve granted full access, consider the potential problems if they were to leak data as well.

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Former Apple India Managing Director Maneesh Dhir has joined Meta, which specializes in augmented reality, as its new chief operating officer. Previously, at Apple India, he was responsible for expanding Apple’s retail presence, raising the customer experience, and growing the company’s India business.

Prior to working at Apple, Dhir served as executive vice president – international at America Online (AOL). He previously held the position of vice president and general manager of the Application Platform division at Netscape (Netscape was acquired by AOL in 1999). Earlier in his career, he was part of the leadership team for KIVA Software, an Internet start-up that was acquired by Netscape in 1997.

In December 2016, Meta began shipping its Meta 2 Development Kit to select individual and enterprise developers. The Meta 2 delivers an immersive experience and enables users to interact with holograms with their...

While Apple's HomePod couldn't reach store shelves before the end of 2017, Google's competing Home Max speaker has arrived right on time, with orders now being accepted at Best Buy and shipping in time for Christmas.

Apple founder Steve Wozniak was in Australia to speak at the Pivot Summit in Geelong, Victoria. Woz was asked his feelings about the iPhone X. What spun out of that short talk was a series of headlines, like:

“Woz Slams The iPhone X, Confirms Google Is Taking Advantage Of Consumers”, from ChannelNews, and “Apple iPhone X not what Steve Wozniak wants” from the The Australian.

Speaking at the Pivot Summit in Geelong, Victoria today, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak shared a few new tidbits about his experience with the iPhone X so far and his thoughts on Face ID vs. Touch ID. Woz also offered up a few anecdotes about his years working with Steve Jobs. Wozniak is one of several speakers at the one day conference focused on providing insight about emerging technology.

Software Updates via MacUpdate

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Tunnelblick 3.7.4b - GUI for OpenVPN.

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Tunnelblick 3.7.4b - GUI for OpenVPN.

Tunnelblick is a free, open source graphic user interface for OpenVPN on OS X. It provides easy control of OpenVPN client and/or server connections. It comes as a ready-to-use application with all... Read more

Carbon Copy Cloner 5.0.5 - Easy-to-use b...

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Amazing Katamari Damacy brings the bizarro world of the original games to mobile and shifts them into an endless format that's just as addictive as the PlayStation entries. Your goal is still to roll as much random stuff as you possibly can, though... | Read more »

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The best deals on the App Store this wee...

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What you need to know about Animal Cross...

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Portal Knights guide- beginner tips and...

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